Book Review: Trent Dalton’s Love Stories

Posted on 6 December 2025 by andyq

Love StoriesLove Stories by Trent Dalton
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I’m going to go right down the middle with a middling rating of this book, with the stars mostly for the intention. It is clear that Dalton is a lovely man with a great big heart and the genesis of the book and many of the stories are truly heart-warming. But Dalton turns sugar into saccharine. He’s so in love with the idea of love, so excited about the project of capturing people’s love stories by sitting on a corner in Brisbane with a typewriter, that everyone sounds the same, with similar dialogue, language and opinions, as if they are all under the same spell.

Dalton loves to capture Aussie vernacular – sorta, kinda – and makes descriptions bigger than big: ‘heart the size of the Indian subcontinent’; ‘Mike Tyson meets Mad Max meets a meteorological phenomenon’; ‘more valuable to the United States of America than all the gold in Fort Knox’.

To my taste, this is distancing, rather than engaging, and basically, all too much. And yet, I could be annoyed by a paragraph and suddenly feel a tear coming on, which Dalton would love, since many of his protagonists cry because they are so happy (or in love, or touched, or sad). As most readers of the book loved it, I certainly won’t begrudge them this burst of positivity and love, written as an antidote to the confines of the COVID pandemic. And who am I to argue with the power of love?

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Book Review: Lorrie Moore’s The Collected Stories

Posted on 6 December 2025 by andyq

The Collected StoriesThe Collected Stories by Lorrie Moore
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I think I was in university when I first discovered Lorrie Moore, reading Like Life (1990) and then liking it so much that I read Birds of America too (1998). Oddly though, when I bought her ‘The Collected Stories’, shortly after its publication in 2008, I never tackled it (it’s a big book after all; there’s a boarding pass in it from when I must started it on a flight to Moscow). So, it’s strange to count that 17 years have gone by before I grabbed it from the shelf again and finally read it through. Seventeen years!

It has been a strange experience reading the book from the perspective of middle age. And I read it strangely too. The book starts with four new stories and then has stories from four books, from the most recent (1998) to the oldest (1985). I’m not sure why I disliked the new stories so much that I ended up jumping to the oldest stories and reading them first and then moved towards the newer ones.

I sense that part of why I was fascinated by her writing in my university years and hitting 30 was almost in an anthropological sense. This was what life was like for bitter middle-aged women in America! Their partners have affairs, constantly. They are always going through divorce and get through the bitterness with wordplay and jokes. People in middle age are always making jokes.

But now, in middle age, I can see that most people that I know are not like Moore’s protagonists and that there is much that I dislike about them. The jokes come across as a way of hiding or avoiding emotion. While the people are always betraying each other sexually and having affairs, I honestly can’t discern why any of them would be together in the first place. They never seem to like each other or care for each other. And I also found it frustrating that they all speak in such similar voices. A male character is described as being a basic guy and not very thoughtful, but his thoughts, as described by Moore are as poetic and witty as the other characters. Most characters regularly engage in witticism and wordplay.

I also found myself struggling with a common tool, the story (or part of a story) that culminates in a revelatory metaphor or image. I remember as a young man, and as a young writer, that I was impressed with them the first time around. But now, I’m not so sure. Take the end of ‘The Jewish Hunter’:

‘If she had spurned gifts from fate or God or some earnest substitute, she would never feel it in that way. She felt like someone of whom she was fond, an old and future friend of herself, still unspent and up ahead somewhere, like a light that moves.’

This is flashy writing. She would never feel like she was a person who had spurned gifts from fate? Instead, she feels like someone, not herself, but a friend to herself, still … unspent. A light that moves? Honestly, I don’t get it. Especially the strange but banal ‘light that moves’.

The last story that I read in the whole collection was probably the strangest, ‘Like Life’, told often in dreams, a sort of dystopian world where it is illegal ‘not to have a television’ and there is a large group of poor and unemployed and sick who sell flowers. In the end, the protagonist’s romantic partner, who is actually more affectionate than most of the men in the collection but also has more threat and aggression is revealed to possibly be a serial killer. And then it was clear to me that Moore’s stories may not at all be aspiring to be a reflection of life at all but instead exaggeration, distortion and jokes, or perhaps a mood or a place inside your head.

And while I did feel at odds with the immense praise included on the covers, or indeed, in the reviews I’ve seen, including here, I also note that Moore is a beautiful writer, and a skilled writer. Her descriptions are original and engaging. And when the stories are emotional and the characters are connected together and care about each other, I was affected. I cared too. The stories about a woman character caring for her mother (and the one with the trip to Ireland) are wonderful and the stories about parents dealing with the illness of a child are beautiful and tragic. I found ‘Joy’ to surprise me in that not a lot happens in the story and yet I was moved and delighted.

And then I also realised that these stories work better for me with a good break in between. The wordplay and wit in smaller doses are amusing, charming and funny, rather than relentless. The characters, with time to breathe, may not be so similar to each other as I thought (or I can forget about the ones from the previous story and allow the new ones to exist in their own territory).

It is a little mundane to say that I didn’t like some of the stories much and I liked a few a lot. I recognise that Moore is a talented and powerful writer, who cares about politics and the human condition, and it gives me insight into the ways we can use humour and wordplay to create distance, as defence, to hide hurt, to relieve anxiety and stress, but also to lift our spirits and connect us. I’m glad that I read Moore’s collected works and as with any author, I can see that some aspects of her writing will work for some readers and some won’t, and sometimes it will depend, as it did for me, on what stage of life I am at, what kind of life experience I have had and how much and with which characters I can connect with.

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Book Review: Eduardo Galeano’s The Book of Embraces

Posted on 6 December 2025 by andyq

The Book of EmbracesThe Book of Embraces by Eduardo Galeano
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

When I was first exposed to the Memory of Fire trilogy, it was a revelation. Here, in anecdotes both poetic and mythic, Galeano turned the history of the world around, centering voices that had been suppressed and hidden, introducing his worldview to a somewhat sheltered but curious 16-year-old. So, I’ve always kept Galeano on my radar.

The Book of Embraces is especially charming because it is smaller and more personal, and tells me more about Galeano, as much as it does the world. His progressive politics are clear and plain; in the wrong circles, his books must drive those neo-cons crazy! The book is accompanied with Galeano’s own illustrations, which are a world unto itself, topsy-turvy, surreal and engaging.

He was evidently such a good man. I’m glad he’s left his legacy to the world in books like this.

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Book Review: Andrew O’Hagan’s Be Near Me

Posted on 6 December 2025 by andyq

Be Near MeBe Near Me by Andrew O’Hagan
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Because I’d raved about O’Hagan’s Marilyn Monroe book (as narrated by her dog, Maf), a new literary friend loaned me one of his favourite books, ‘Be Near Me’. To be frank, I was a bit confused by the whole experience. There is an immediate distancing because the narrator can be unlikeable, partly because of his own lack of self-knowledge. It’s evident early on that this fault is going to get him in trouble, and it’s like watching a slow motion car crash.

Thematically, there was also distancing. As a Canadian living in Australia, the complications of the class divides of the United Kingdom are often beyond me, and this is something that is a key theme of the book: privilege vs non-privilege; education vs non-educated; wealth vs poverty, and all of this on top of a clear English vs Scottish rivalry. And while I’ve certainly read enough stories about the British education system (so many novels set in Oxford and Cambridge, and their environs!), I feel distanced from that milieu as well. It comes through in the narrator’s attachment to ideas, history, philosophy, fine wine, and appreciation for classical music and art. I think of myself as worldly and well-read, but often, the narration of ‘Be Near Me’ made me feel like I was on the wrong side of the tracks, one of the ruffians in smalltown Scotland.

By why should this be? To say that I relate more to 50s North America, Hollywood and a narrator who is, for godsake, a dog, in the O’Hagan novel I loved, seems ludicrious. And in fact, I think what O’Hagan’s novel actually demands is objectivity. He offers an explanation for why the character gets himself into so much trouble, the more sympathetic and in-fact wiser character is his cleaner who values knowledge but comes from a modest background; he draws a truly diverse set of characters who cross classes and political ideologies.

All of this is amidst beautiful writing, and an urgency and narrative that drives the book, which I read rather quickly, considering my reading speed these days, slowed down by TV and other distractions. So, while themes of class divide and religion didn’t engage me, and the consequences of a repressed sexuality were not new to me, all in all, I’m impressed with O’Hagan’s inhabiting of his narrators, his willingness to tackle big issues and some lovely writing, imbued with not a small measure of melancholy and nostalgia.

But if you’ve read this far, and haven’t read his other book, ‘The Life and Opinions of Maf the Dog and of His Friend Marilyn Monroe’, please do so. It’s amazing.

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Book Review: Alice Munro’s The Moons of Jupiter

Posted on 6 December 2025 by andyq

The Moons of JupiterThe Moons of Jupiter by Alice Munro
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I’m reading through Alice Munro’s books: all of them. Most of them I’d read before, but a number are completely new or I only read a story or two of them. The Moons of Jupiter surprised me in that it’s an older collection (1982) and yet I found it as engaging as any of the collections I’d read. Perhaps I’m finally a mature reader, and don’t require stories to be set in the present time to relate to them. A case in point is the story, ‘The Turkey Season’, which a review referred to as a workplace story. And then suddenly, even though a young woman gutting turkeys before the Christmas season in a small Canadian town is a far distance from my life, it did remind me of the politics, conflicts, intrigue and secrets of one of my workplaces. And that’s what I love so much about Munro’s stories, that they make me think about my own life while set in completely different worlds.

One detail filled me with some wonder and dread. I thought of the Alice Munro revelations from not long ago, and read that her daughter started to be abused by her stepfather in 1976 when she was 9, but that Alice didn’t learn about it until much later. How then does a story published in 1978, the last story in the collection (a very fine one), feature a narrator who has a daughter who she is estranged from? An adult daughter who the narrator describes as ‘sly and solitary, cold, seductive’. Chilling.

I will continue reading the rest of Munro’s work, as I love her stories and story-telling so much. But there is an added layer of complexity that I shall contend with.

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Book Review. Alice Munro’s Friend of My Youth

Posted on 6 December 2025 by andyq

Friend of My YouthFriend of My Youth by Alice Munro
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I return to this page, and see, a surprise to me, that I rated it three stars in 2011. I actually don’t remember reading it before. It was not on my shelf, so I bought a new copy recently, as I am making my way through Alice Munro’s books, mostly in order, and mostly focusing on the ones that I thought I hadn’t read. I had previously read the 1982 collection, Progress of Love, and nearing the end of Friend of My Youth, I was about to say that I really didn’t enjoy it as much. And then there’s the stunning last story ‘Wigtime’ and while it’s not enough to completely save the collection for me, it is enough for me to raise the rating to four stars!

It’s an interesting experience reading Munro again and reading her stories from an older vantage point. I’m sure that I would have missed much in earlier readings, particularly when I was in my university years. I also find it interesting whether I can cross the barrier of a different time and place to really engage with the stories. I usually can, and am surprised by it, to go back in time to these small towns in Ontario, the poverty of country life, and be engrossed, for example in ‘The Turkey Season’ from The Moons of Jupiter. But sometimes, I can’t.

After enjoying the first two stories, ‘Friend of my Youth’ and ‘Five Points’, I was disengaged from ‘Meneseteung’ with a researcher looking at the life of a poetess in the late 1800s. The effects of the Second World War combined with Scottish recitations in the next story also confused me, but also made me realise that Munro sometimes uses snippets of verse (I assume made up) or a complicated piece of information at a pivotal point of the story (usually the conclusion) and it doesn’t work for me. As I said, I quite liked the first story, but to end it with a full paragraph on a 17th century Scottish religious sect, the Cameronians, goes over my head, as does the conclusion to ‘Oh, What Avails’ when a stanza of poetry is recalled from the Anthology of English Verse that explains a character’s name.

But compare that to the book’s close, and also Wigtime’s close:

Margot and Anita have got this far. They are not ready yet to stop talking. They are fairly happy.

This, after a complex comparison of two old friends, their different pathways, jumping back and forth over more than three decades. I loved the story and I loved the ending.

I take it as a given that most people reading this will also be fans of Munro, as I am, and so this review isn’t a critique but more me working out why I like some of her stories and books more than others. As an aside, has anyone else noticed how often Munro describes women characters by their weight, whether they are solid or slender, broad-hipped or waif-like? I can’t unsee it now that I’ve started to notice it, and it feels a little too judgemental for my liking.

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2025 in lists: Musicals, theatre, concerts, books and exhibitions

Posted on 5 December 2025 by andyq

A work in progress (at least during 2025) …

Musicals and theatre

  • Hamlet Camp, Carriageworks: A kooky idea with engaging pros telling the story. I loved the autobiographical poems that opened this, our friend Claudia provided a wonderful different energy to the production, and the evening was both skilfully and carefully created and chaotic! Absolutely loved it. 
  • Jesus Christ Superstar, Capitol Theatre: An incredible cast assembled to sing the shit out of this old musical, with the orchestration and direction making it feel contemporary. It’s jarring to compare this music to Lloyd Webber’s other musicals: songs here that have been in my head for decades. But the staging was pretty hectic, and I would have liked to here more variation in the singing (I think only Paynter, as Jesus, gave us some quiet moments). Great to see the production so well received. It’s an entertaining show. 
  • Ghost Quartet, Hayes Theatre: I was pretty speechless after this. Wonderful music with unusual harmonies and crazy, complex and effective storytelling, with a powerhouse cast of four people. How I loved this. 
  • Feeling Afraid As If Something Terrible is Going to Happen, Sydney Opera House: Written by Marcelo Dos Santos and performed by Samuel Barnett. One-person shows always engage me: they need to have every line, word and pause in place to propel the story. This exceeded my expectations: sharp, dark, funny and beautifully constructed. A hit of a past Edinburgh Festival, I’m glad I got to see it here in Sydney! 
  • Hadestown, Theatre Royal: Wow. I had no idea. I did remember it winning the Tony Award for best musical and my husband saw it and loved it, but I somehow didn’t pay attention. The music, storytelling and staging: all amazing. Brought to life by a stellar cast. I really, really loved this. 
  • An Evening Without Kate Bush, Bondi Pavillion: It’s surprisingly hard to find information on the history of this cabaret show by Sarah-Louise Young but I think she premiered it at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 2023. It is a pretty fun show, and I do love Kate Bush, though don’t know her work all that well. I felt there was a lack of spark in the audience reaction and the performance that night.
  • Candide, Opera Australia: I love Leonard Bernstein’s music but I have to admit to being a bit apprehensive to see a 2.5 hour production of a Broadway operetta. But it was made as accessible as possible, with Australian accents and settings, lots of humour and a fast pace. Annie Aitken as Cunegonde was my favourite. What a voice. And what an acting triumph during ‘Glitter and Be Gay’. I thought Lyndon Watts’s microphone should have been turned up during this opening night performance, so as to somehow match Cunegonde. He got overshadowed. And for both Candide and Maximilian to be so gay, it was a little odd, on top of the totally bonkers story that jumps all around the globe. 
  • Guys and Dolls, Opera Australia: There’s no doubt that the Fleet Steps, with a view of the Opera House, on a temperate Sydney night, is one of the most beautiful places in the world to see a show. And that’s the formula: Sydneysiders flock to see one of these musicals or operas, and hope that it doesn’t rain. But changing a show to a spectacle, adding fireworks as during this show at a random point, and miking the performers loud enough so you can hear them, takes away from the shows, except for their most spectacular parts. The performers can feel swallowed by the stage. Any subtlety in the dialogue or quiet humour is lost. After seeing 4 or 5 of these, I think this will be the last one, no matter how much I enjoyed the orchestra and some of the cast members (Annie Aitken was the standout for me).
  • No Love Songs, Foundry Theatre: Interesting to check out the new performance space at the Star (which is in receivership, what’s going to happen there?) This show was apparently a hit at the Edinburgh Festival, and they Australianised it and are putting it on here with two great performers, but I wanted to like it more than I did. Sure, it felt truthful and honest, but I found it hard to enjoy or appreciate watching an immature relationship founder, post-natal depression and a suicide attempt, all set to music. 
  • Kimberly Akimbo: Tony-award winning and well reviewed, I was looking forward to this. But while a main theme, progeria, was something I’m unfamiliar with, it was surprising how cliché and weird the rest of the musical is. The descent into farce is so ridiculous that it’s not funny or enjoyable. While I liked the orchestrations and a few of the songs, others were too familiar. Singing into a video camera not only hearkened to Rent but the sing-songy conversational vocal line was pretty much the same. I’ve heard the song about trying to be and fighting expectations of being a ‘Good Boy’ so many times in pop songs, and worse, the trope of a child whose lost a parent to disease or accident (or a parent whose lost a child) is just too prevalent these days, years in fact. Great actors, some pleasant songs, and surprisingly, a dog of a story. And not a good dog.
  • Garry Starr, Classic Penguins, Grand Electric Ballroom: It really was interesting to see how the naked male body is considered shocking and comical at once, and while the audience got used to it, in some ways, for many an arse and arsehole are inherently funny. Garry Starr is a wonderful clown and brought this energy and joy to this clever production. It really was a lot of fun. 

Concerts and performances

  • Tom Odell, Sydney Opera House. I wasn’t familiar with Odell’s music but we always trust our friend Steven, when he asked if we wanted to come. Backed by the Metropolitan Orchestra, these pop songs were given incredible orchestrations and Odell is a real artist and musician: his voice is a beautiful instrument – emotional, powerful and with its own character. Loved the concert. I am now a fan. 
  • Alok, Enmore Theatre. As interesting as seeing  Alok, a trans-feminine South Asian stand-up comedian and storyteller, was the audience and how supportive they were. Which made it weird that some of Alok’s routine seemed to presuppose an audience that included non-queer and possibly non-supportive people. So, those lines fell flat for me. An interesting, and all in all enjoyable night. 
  • Japanese Breakfast, Sydney Opera House. I don’t know their music that well but what I’ve heard, I like. Michelle Zauner has an amazing voice. It’s clear that the songwriting and musicianship is tops. I found in person that the music and concert was not straightforward, in a good way. Like, they weren’t simple and easy pop songs, but quite a bit more, with a punk and experimental attitude. And I love that the lights didn’t work (the light show); it made the concert feel more intimate and lo-fi, like at a small venue, or a university show. 
  • Pub Choir, Enmore Theatre, You Get What You Give. So excited to be able to experience the phenomenon that is Pub Choir and Astrid Jorgensen. So much fun. Loved the joy and positive vibes in the concert hall. 
  • Josh Pyke, Feeding the Wolves 20th Anniversary Tour, City Recital Hall. I love this guy. 
  • An Evening with the Cowboy Junkies – Celebrating 40 years, State Theatre. I’ve always loved their vibe and I found it quite joyful to hear the old favourite songs again. But I also found it interesting that the band is aging with us. This was no retro experience. A number of songs were about the Timmins father, who died after developing dementia after the COVID-19 lockdown. 

Books

  • Alice Munro’s The Progress of Love. See my review here.
  • Superman, Son of Kal-el, Volumes 1, 2 and 3. My pal James loves comic books and recommended that I check these out. I do find it amazing that we live in a time where the son of Superman, in an apparently popular series, has a boyfriend with a Japanese family name (I’d say Japanese-American, but he’s from a fictional island called Gamorra, where his mother was the President …) 
  • Ronald de Sousa’s Love: A Very Short Introduction. See my review here.
  • Copenhagen Tales, edited by Lotte Shankland. See my review here.
  • James Loxton’s Authoritarianism: A Very Short Introduction. See my review here.
  • Alice Munro’s The Moons of Jupiter. See my review here.
  • Eduardo Galeano’s The Book of Embraces. See my review here.
  • Alice Munro’s Friend of My Youth. See my review here.
  • Andrew O’Hagan’s Be Near Me. See my review here.
  • Lorrie Moore’s The Collected Stories. See my review here.
  • Trent Dalton’s Love Stories. See my review here.

Exhibitions

  • Yayoi Kusama at the NGV. I am so glad I went to Melbourne to see this exhibit. She’s a fascinating artist with fascinating work, and work that goes far beyond her well-known work and very accessible work. Amazing. 
  • Christian Dior: Designer of Dreams, Seoul. A beautifully presented and conceived exhibition that allowed me to appreciate Dior as a designer and fashion house. Most fun was seeing the delight of the mainly women attendees, audible gasps of pleasure on seeing dresses they liked, and I could see in their eyes that they were imagining what they would look like in them.

 

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2025 in lists: Television

Posted on 6 September 2025 by andyq

A work in progress. 

Television

    • Squid Game, Season 2: I can’t believe that so many people all around the world watched such a violent show in Season 1, which purported to say something important about the gap between the rich and poor, and the nature of human survival, but didn’t, really. It was fascinating to watch, culturally, and the characters, language and rhythm were quite interesting. But season 2 is a strange watch, so violent, and without moving the story along much. I will be resentfully watching Season 3 when it comes out. 
    • Missing You: I was drawn in by seeing this was, for a time, the #1 show in Australia in Netflix and also because I liked Rosalind Eleazer’s acting in Slow Horses. And the first episode had lots of promise with interesting characters and the promise of a decent thriller. But then none of the characters acted in a way that I felt was authentic. It was basically a thriller with lots of plot points and mysteries, and moving the characters around a chess board, feeling by the end, hollow. 
    • Black Doves: A spy who falls in love with someone she hasn’t done a background check on; an assassin who falls in love with someone and then continues to put them in danger: it makes for OK television but didn’t make sense to me. But I let myself ignore these plot problems and then found I really enjoyed this. 
    • Prime Target: I don’t know why we’re watching so much ludicrous TV and cinema these days. It started off entertainingly enough but then seemed to lose control of the story and writing and I lost interest. They somehow made Leo Woodall into the least engaging and attractive of his characters so far, and while I love Sidse Babett Knudsen, from Borgen, even she couldn’t save this for me.
    • Adolescence: Watched this, as apparently the rest of the world is doing as well. It’s harrowing and disturbing, amazing acting and great TV-making, though not necessarily enjoyable. But art is not always supposed to be comfortable. 
    • Severance, season 2: I think this may be my favourite TV show since Six Feet Under. The ideas are so complex and well-developed, it’s way more than entertaining: it’s engaging and challenging. Love the actors so much and the production design. So fantastic. 
    • White Lotus, season 3: I could write an essay on why I disliked this season, but instead I’ll summarise it as: I didn’t find the characters engaging, I found the storytelling sensationalistic and simplistic, and I hated all their publicity telling me what a genius Mike White is when he produced a poor, overhyped season. The music was doing the work, always telling us exactly how we were supposed to feel. I may just avoid the next season (and the hype). 
    • Ripley: Beautifully filmed in black and white, and a reminder of all the things I love about Italy, I’ve always liked Andrew Scott (from Sherlock and Fleabag). And I liked all the characters, but when there was a two-hou film of the story, it really felt like this was drawn out. A scene of sinking a boat, which might have been a fleeting moment in a movie, took up about a third of one episode! 
    • Invisible Boys: An adaptation of a book about four young gay men growing up in Geraldton, Western Australia. Glad I pushed past the first episode, and the series didn’t always land with me, but all in all, I was impressed.
    • Hacks, Season 4: I really did love the first season, and the premise of it all. It was fun and enjoyable TV. But the start of this season was so boring and repetitive. Deborah being cruel and vindictive to Ava. For four episodes or so. And then she wasn’t. But it still didn’t really go anywhere for me. The greed of network TV and entertainment conglomerates is no surprise, and mostly, the growth in the characters is so … small and gradual, I don’t really enjoy it. Not sure if I’ll watch Season 5.
    • Poker Face, Season 2: What a strange ride. I love Natasha Lyonne so much and her character on Poker Face, and Rian Johnson, who does the Knives Out series usually creates such fun puzzle stories. And I loved the concept of a heroine who is a human lie detector. But the shows were so variable! The ones in the middle were so flat and lifeless (and repetitive) that I almost gave up on finishing the season, but it roared back with two final episodes which were pretty great. 
    • Squid Game, Season 3: Like the rest of the world, I found the first season so compelling. Dark and gripping, it introduced me to a different culture and world, and felt like it had something to say. The surprises of the first season were: what would happen to everyone? And: how far would the show go? Unfortunately, knowing the answers made this show nearly unwatchable for the next seasons . The level of violence turned it into a horror movie and I saw no moral lessons or ambiguity. The creator said it does, but I beg to differ. Don’t let your kids watch this.
    • The Bear, Season 4: Last season was roundly criticised but I didn’t mind it at all, it just wasn’t as good as the highs of the previous seasons. This season I loved. I love the characters, I love the storytelling, I love the acting most of all. I found it touching and real. 
    • Murderbot: The critics don’t seem to like this, but I loved it. Short, sharp episodes, good storytelling and fun retro-Star Trek design. I always like Alexander Skarsgård and I liked the characters and conceit. What does it mean to be human?
    • Dexter Resurrection: I loved the first season of Dexter so much. That sense of place! Cuban and Latino Miami. And great storytelling: dark, funny, original and compelling. I lost track of Dexter along the way and heard about the terrible ending. And watched Dexter: New Blood and was quite charmed by it and to be introduced to his son. So, we were completely pumped to watch this new season of Dexter and my god, was it good. The sense of place of New York City. A lot of the original characters doing cameos, plus new ones who were so charismatic (Peter Dinklage! Uma Thurman!). So, yes, I freaking loved this season. It was so good!
    • Somebody Somewhere, Season 1: Thought I’d check this out after Jeff Hillier won an Emmy for his work on the show, and we thought it was interesting and charming, with a slow pace, and the writing not quite sharp enough compared to what we’re used to. 
    • Smilla’s Sense of Snow: I just read that Australia got the world premiere of this. I read the novel years ago and remember loving it. They’ve updated it for 2025, and I absolutely loved the vibe of Nordic noir and thriller with a half-Danish, half-Greenlander heroine, who is spiky and poetic. The plot goes crazy by the end of it, but we did like this a lot and I really loved the actors. 
    • Slow Horses, Season 5: I thought the first episode of the season was a dog’s breakfast but it’s picking up. In the end, I did find it back to form and engaging and enjoyed watching the shenanigans of the team and others. 
    • Madam: The idea of a businesswoman trying to run an ethical brothel in small-town New Zealand interested me, and I’ve always found Rachel Griffiths magnetic. It’s based on a real story and the slice of life material did interest me: casual details of the sex industry and the madam’s son, severely disabled, and played by a severely disabled actor – these felt true. It also felt like I was being introduced to an incredible stable of Kiwi actors.  The problem was when it was trying to be a TV series. I’ve always found accidental drug-taking lazy storytelling. Trying to set the series up for a second season felt forced. Giving Mack, the main character a love interest was also cliché, handsome and natural as he was. So, ups and downs, but 10 x 25 minute episodes, it went by quickly. 
    • Only Murders in the Building, Season 5: It’s always strange to move from much-loved show to feeling over it. I just found the plot overstuffed and I just was not engaged with the dozens of characters. Not sure if I can watch the next season.
    • Diplomat, Seasons 1, 2 and 3: Wow. How did I miss this? This is really great TV. Strong female characters. Complex relationships. And diplomatic intrigue. We binged all three seasons. Love it. 
    • Pluribus: I’m interested so far but find it hard to be engaged with Carol.
    • Down Cemetery Road: While I love Emma Thompson, pretty much everything else – the political mystery, the twists and turns, the bad guys, the grouchy detective, quirky things about the UK – have been done better in other shows, in my humble opinion. 

Documentaries and Reality Television

    • Great Pottery Throw Down, Season 8: This looked like it was going to be a good season and boy, was it. Maybe the most talented group ever, the right final three, and unusually, my favourite maker won! Loved this season. 
    • Hack Your Health: The Secrets of Your Gut: I think this is a really interesting issue, gut health and microbes, but I can’t say that the arguments are done very well here. Cute animations with felt and wool are engaging but I’m not sure they really get the points across. It seemed they wanted to talk about shit, literally, but without much more of a useful message. 
    • Survivor, Season 48: My god, I’ve watched a lot of Survivor, but I found this season engaging and entertaining and was happy with the winner. 
    • ABC’s The Piano: The conceit is marvelous. Invite amateur pianists (and musicians) from around Australia to play at a public piano, while Andrea Lam and Harry Connick Jr watch, hidden, and then choose one per episode to perform in a special concert. Amanda Keller is a wonderful host: warm, personable, human and emotional. And the producers really zoomed in on the human interest stories and the emotions, making some great TV. Husband and I were bawling our eyes out watching the final episode. 
    • Culinary Class Wars: Korean reality TV shows have epic sets and a cast of 100 and a rhythm all to their own, and this was a great way to get to know Korean cooking before we holiday in Seoul in a few weeks. We’ll hunt down some of those chefs. 
    • Great British Bake-Off, Season 15: I’m late to the party. 15 seasons late. But I saw the first two episodes of this season on a plane, and was hooked. It’s such well-made, jolly TV. I love the regional British accents. The diverse cast. And while the bakers are better than me at what they do, they’re at the level where I’m inspired by their cooking (rather than, say, the current season of Australian Masterchef, where the cooking is too skilled, and I don’t find the dishes attainable).
    • Survivor, Australia vs the World: I was doubtful but as a long-time Survivor fan, living in Australia, I thought I better watch this. But how silly it was. No strategy. No storytelling (what did we learn about the contestants?). And production just seemed to hand the prize over from episode 1 to the eventual winner. We can SEE you handing over the idol, and the advantage. And it was not a result of skill or strategy that everyone wanted to work with her and hand her the prize: it was fame. 
    • Project Runway Season 21: There’s so little fashion in this show. It’s all about the drama. There’s no need for new judge, the Roach, to be so aggressively cruel. I hate the cliff-hanger endings each episode. I’m mostly bored but last episode, where they asked designers to reinterpret the American West, and then punished the two non-American designers who don’t know the American West. That’s just nasty and jingoistic. Don’t bother putting them on the show if you’re going to treat them so badly. I managed to watch it to the end, but I don’t plan on watching another season. 
    • Great British Sewing Bee, Season 11: A few friends are great fans of this, but I found it not as enjoyable as its counterparts in baking and pottery, or even Game of Wool. It’s a slower pace and I don’t find the host engaging. 
    • Great British Bake-Off, Season 16: The second season of this that I watched and I’m hooked. Such nice people, and they aren’t fame whores, like on most reality shows. They just seem to really love baking. Also, I think Noel and Alison, the hosts, are hilarious.
    • Game of Wool: Are you sensing a theme? For such a slow craft, and one that I don’t do myself, I find this reality show strangely compelling, perhaps because Tom Daley’s energy (and love of the craft) is infectious. 
    • Physical Asia: I have to admit that I enjoyed this in the end. It reminded me of why I enjoyed watching these type of competitions from an early age (did anyone else, as a child in North America, watch Battle of the Network Stars?) combined with the idea of how are nations and cultures different? Of course it was designed so Korea would win! 

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Come dine with me: Restaurant Evett, Seoul

Posted on 19 July 2025 by andyq

When we travel, we try to choose at least one special restaurant, and since our trip to Seoul coincided with my 56th birthday, I was excited to choose Restaurant Evett. I follow a winner of Masterchef Australia, Nat Thaipun, on Instagram, and saw that she’d been invited to be part of a special event there. And soon after, there was an article on Australia’s ABC news about the young Australian chef, Joseph Lidgerwood, from Tasmania, who had cheffed around the world and settled in Seoul in 2019, and opened Evett, which collected a first Michelin Star in 2020 and a second in 2025. And then we saw him on the Netflix show ‘Culinary Class Wars’!

I found it interesting that the show classified him as a Western chef, and the booking site, Catch-Table, and Google Maps both call it a Western restaurant, when Lidgerwood is so clearly committed to using Korean ingredients and techniques. Sure, it’s fine dining, but fine dining isn’t automatically Western.

We’ve eaten at a number of Michelin Star restaurants or their equivalent and it is fun to make comparisons. Some restaurants present the menu beforehand, and some after, but I think Evett is the only restaurant we’ve been to that maintains an engaging mystique. The menu has a drawing, by each of the chefs responsible, of an ingredient used! And then lists them.

The staff did explain each dish as it was brought out, but I thought this was fun to not focus on the names of the ingredients but just try to *taste* them. The other innovation, which I took advantage of, was offering a pairing with the menu of Korean drinks, instead of the usual Western wines. A number of them were collaborations between the restaurant and the producer, and it was exciting! A first shoju was infused with apricot, I think, and then carbonation, so that it was a sweet sparkling drink, like champagne. Another shoju was of lotus blossoms and another of plum (I think). This one below was milky!

The meal was anything but stiff and formal. Starting with an amuse-bouche, a cracker with smoked horse mackerel, yuzu, soy crème fraiche and flower petals – hanging from a tree!

This dish came served in a dish was shaped like a Gat, a traditional Korean hat, with a crust the same colour as the ceramic.

… which when cracked revealed abalone and radish in a creamy (possibly liver) sauce.

Every dish was a delight and told a story and introduced me to a Korean flavour, texture or ingredient. This was really what I wanted from a dining experience like this and I sure got it! And as I expected, from a restaurant of this quality, everything was beautiful. The setting was beautiful. Each dish or vessel was beautiful. The glassware was beautiful.

It’s a beautiful space and the staff are uniformly charming. Special thanks to Yannis, the Greek-French sommelier who was generous with the drink and a joke.

The restaurant is in the Gangnam area and we would have liked to explore it more. I’d sort of expected it to have more of a village and neighbourhood type feel to it, but the part that we saw was massive, with skyscrapers and a freeway that was 8 lanes across. We did manage to arrive early enough and were lucky enough to grab a drink at the bar Zest, named to the World’s Top Bars, and the highest rated bar in Seoul. We could taste why the bar is so applauded. Apparently they’re good friends with Evett.

Can you tell I’m filling space so I can fit in some more photos? I didn’t take notes properly, so I can’t give you detailed descriptions of the dishes, sadly, but they were superb, each one, honestly.

I’m guessing this was the Red Tilefish, but what was special to me was the various vegetables that I couldn’t quite identify and were so interesting and tasty and delicate.

It was so great to try the famous Korean Hanwoo beef, which is compared to Wagyu. It was so rich, like tasty fat barely held together with flesh. The jus with black garlic was super-intense. It was served with a small portion of rice, with an explanation of why the rice was special. I love when a chef takes something that is considered humble and shows me a new level. They served the beef with a kimchi sherbet, which neither of us loved, but we certainly don’t mind being challenged! And it was appropriate to serve Korean beef with kimchi!

So, after many dishes and courses (I’m counting seven so far and I don’t think I missed taking photos of any), the dessert courses were served. These were especially yummy.

Though again I’m sorry I can’t tell you exactly what they were.

This one though, with a dish of ice, had a slice of melon on top with a delicious jelly set in it. And then underneath, it was like a trifle, with Korean flavours. Super yummy.

Almost there … As I was facing my husband during the meal, I didn’t see what was going on. He noted that Chef Joseph wasn’t cooking but instead directing the proceedings (including telling diners where the toilets were; you normally do not get this level of personalised service!) and he also noted what a nice camaraderie they all seemed to have. Stevie knew what was coming; I didn’t. We were invited up for a last course, where we got to see the kitchen up close, toast a marshmallow at the grill, and hand it back to the chef, where he put it in a spoon, with a delicious sauce and dressed it with flower petals.

Then we were able to take a photo with Joseph (he’s tall!) which was very welcome and THEN, we were presented with a print of the drawings in the menu. I was so charmed by this. We’re going to frame it and put it up in our apartment as a reminder of such a special experience.

Two signature sesame oil caramels served on the most beautiful container of seeds and flowers.

And for my birthday, I received a special treat, a seaweed cake. I believe it was mochi on the outside, around an ice cream centre and cake. They really know how to make you special. Thank you Restaurant Evett and Chef Joseph and his team. We will always remember this meal.

Posted in Food n' Grog, Review, Travel | Leave a comment

2025 in lists: Movies

Posted on 6 July 2025 by andyq

Stay tuned…

Movies: seen on TV, probably on a streaming service, or on an airplane

  • The Substance: There seems to be a difference in opinion. Husband absolutely loved this one. I found it well-made in parts but simplistic and disliked the camera’s voyeurism over the younger persona. And then was just grossed out, and not in an enjoyable way. But husband absolutely hated …
  • Anora … and the characters and thought there was no story at all, just a lot of yelling, whereas I found them interesting and engaging, and even when I felt uncomfortable, I didn’t mind being uncomfortable. 
  • The Holdovers: I remember the buzz about this film and so had expectations. But I found it a cliché.
  • How to Make Millions Before Grandma Dies: I was also interested in the buzz about this film. The pace is so different than a Western story that I wondered if the mostly terrible characters would ever get their redemption. But they do, and I quite liked it in the end, though it shows a part of Thai society that is poor and tradition-bound that I suspect is unfortunately very common in east Asia. 
  • Waiting for Guffman: A blast from the past. How I loved seeing Eugene Levy and Catherine O’Hara. And a very young Parker Posey. Fun and silly. 
  • Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale: We’ve seen all the rest, from the first season, so I had to watch this, even if I couldn’t be arsed to go to the cinema to do so. 

Movies (seen in the cinema)

  • Conclave: Wow, it takes us to February to see a movie in the cinema. Ralph Fiennes is incredible, such gravitas. I found it amusing that they made a thriller out of the selection of the new pope, but it worked, and the images were beautiful. I’m glad we saw it on the big screen. Ludicrous ending but I’m happy we saw this.
  • Emilia Pérez: I was totally in for the first, say, 20 minutes. It’s bonkers and Zoe Saldaña is fantastic. The Busby Berkeley style song and dance number about gender confirmation surgery was nuts and entertaining. But then I kept falling out of the film because of many reasons: Selena’s terrible accent in Spanish. And I love her in Murders in the Building but she seemed totally miscast. And because of using the Mexico drug cartel murders as a plot device. And the ludicrous plot developments. 
  • Fantastic Four: First Steps: I remember the Fantastic Four well from my childhood, so I should have been more excited about this than I was. But it was a good date night. Love the design of the film and sets, the retro-futuristic look, and the actors are fantastic. The story is ludicrous as with most superhero films, but if you just give in to that, it’s fine. Husband loved it. I thought it was a 7.5 out of 10. 
  • Kiss of the Spider Woman: I always find it jarring to set a jaunty musical in the midst of real-life horrors, in this case, the Argentine Dirty War. But whether movies like ‘Life is Beautiful’ or ‘Jojo Rabbit’ or Cabaret set in Nazi Germany (and Sound of Music, of course), it seems to be a whole genre unto itself. I thought it was entertaining, though strange. Husband loved it. 
  • Wicked: For Good: I loved the original musical and I liked the first part, particularly the spectacle of it, but I really think they should have just made one film, and not stretched it out to two long films. 
  • Merrily We Roll Along: As I would have loved to see this revival on Broadway, and I always loved the musical, even though it was considered a flop, I totally loved this filmed version. I was introduced to the musical by singing ‘Our Time’ with London’s Pink Singers, the lesbian and gay choir (back then, we were blind to the Bs and Ts), and that sense of hope, that anything could happen, was what I felt in London at the time.

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